Various types of electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems are known having the common feature of employing a marker or tag which is affixed to an article to be protected against theft from a controlled area, such as merchandise in a store. When a legitimate purchase of the article is made, the marker can either be removed from the article, or converted from an activated state to a deactivated state. Such systems employ a detection arrangement, commonly placed at all exits of a store, and if an activated marker passes through the detection system, it is detected by the detection system and an alarm is triggered.
Such electronic detection arrangements, as used in the present invention, are well known in the art and preferred embodiment is discussed in my U.S. Pat. No. 7,084,766, titled “Article Surveillance Tag Having a Metal Clip” which is incorporated herein by reference.
Current inventions in this field do not address the need for an EAS tag that is difficult to defeat and easy to use. In addition, the existing inventions fail to provide a theft deterrent tag assembly that can be securely engaged to articles which either should not be penetrated by a pin to prevent damage, because of their delicate nature, or are made of impenetrable material. Therefore, there remains a long standing and continuing need for an advance in the art of EAS and theft deterrent tags that makes the tags more difficult to defeat, simpler in both design and use, more economical and efficient in their construction and use, and provide a more secure and reliable engagement of the article to be monitored.